South Australian Brewing Club (SABC) is a club based in Adelaide where beer and brewing enthusiasts can collaborate and discuss the brewing of beer at home or at the craft brewing level. We welcome members from all over South Australia.

Author: Gus Kingston

In a club first, judging of the summer competition will be at the Kings Head, cnr King William and Sturt St. They have reserved the back room for us to use. It’s a space which should be a large comfortable place to enjoy the competition beers and have space for everyone who can join us for a beer or lunch.

Judging will start shortly after 12 pm on Saturday 23rd as we have allowed for drop off to be done by 12.15 sharp on the day.

We have only booked till 3.30, so we can also do the awards presentation at 3 pm. Being prompt and arriving by 12 and having a hearty breakfast (and lunch) is paramount to the success of the day. So everyone is invited to come down during the afternoon as a social gathering and for the presentation.

Feel free to bring guests along to cheer your success and hopefully you can stay for a beer or two afterwards. There is the possibility of a guest brewer doing a tasting at the attached Sturt St Cellars. They’re a great supporter of local brewing so some money over the bar will keep them happy and us in the good books for future needs.

It takes a lot to run a competition. If you can help during the afternoon either as a judge or a steward or even just help process the admin or the cleaning up let us know at the meeting or email. Any support would be appreciated.Entries:Submit your entry online and pay here (you have to log in) https://comps.sabrew.com/

Bottle drop off: – At the club meeting on Thursday 21, – Gary’s house at 103 Childers St, Nth Adelaide. There will be an esky on the porch if he’s not there. – Beerbelly Brewing Supplies – Unit 3, 95 Research Road, POORAKA – Strictly until 1pm Friday 22. – The King’s Head only on the day of judging between 12 and 12.15

As you are aware, our meeting this month is on THURSDAY 21 at Little BangBrewing, at their brand new brewery on Henry St Stepney. We’ll get a ‘backstage’ tour of the facilities to see the differences between the old venue and this new one. Come prepared with any questions you have for the Little Bang team, it will be an awesome opportunity to understand the logistics around moving to a bigger location.

Club news and events: 24 members went on the bus tour to the Southern Vales breweries, despite a last-minute scramble to get a replacement bus and driver and a pretty hot day, we had a great time meeting the brewers and tasting some excellent (and tbh, not so great) beers. We’ll do it again soon.

Coming soon: At the end of March, we’re having a club brew day with a bit of a twist. If your brewing gear isn’t portable, don’t worry, you can join a team. More to come. Some of the beers will be for the club’s annual BeerBQ which is going to be on May the 4th. Put it in your diaries now and think about brewing your Light Sabre Lager now.

Has your membership lapsed? No worries, you can renew easily online at any time at sabrew.com.au to take advantage of all of the club benefits and events we host. Membership is 1 year from whenever you renew, no need to wait until July anymore.

FREE! Fringe showLocal Adelaide comedian, Ken Balnaves, has comedy gig coming up at the Adelaide Fringe. ‘You Bewdy’ is full of relatable stories on those day to day things we all experience -— with a bit on beer and brewing too!https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/kel-balnaves-you-bewdy-af2019Ken has kindly given us two double passes to check out his performance this week — either Friday 15/2, Sat 16/2 or Sunday 17/2. If you are keen to go for nix, tell us what night you prefer and email us info@sabrew.com – first in, best dressed.

TheBest of Adelaide Brewers Festival – BOAB is happening next weekend at the Flour Shed, Port Adelaide – it’s sure to be a great weekend event, with a host of South Aussie brewers on showcase to celebrate brews from micro and nano breweries around the state.

The Craft Beer King will also be hosting the “Brewers Stage”, talking to brewers about passions, influences and more. Head to the event page to find out how you can grab your tickets.

One: The bus tour of Southern Vales breweries is almost sold out and due to a cancellation, we’ve got four seats left. The tour is this Saturday and will take you to Goodieson Brewery to meet head brewer Jeff, Shifty Lizard Brewing Co and meet head brewer Lee, Forktree Brewing to meet head brewer Ben and then lunch in the restaurant overlooking Carickalinga and then South Coast Brewing Co where you will meet brewers Scott, Mark and Brett. $30 for a 9.45am start. Return to The Wheaty by 5.45 where you can kick on at Thebartonia. We won’t be doing another one in the near future so be quick! Book via the shop. You must log in https://shop.sabrew.com/product-category/events/

Two: Our next regular monthly meeting is having a date change. It will be THURSDAY 21 February at Little Bang Brewing. Unfortunately, they’re not open on Wednesdays and unlike when they were smaller, can’t make exceptions for homebrewing mates. The Wheaty is also busy with Fringe events.

Bring your summer competition entries but we won’t be judging them on the night.

We’ll get a backstage tour of the new brewery and other plans are still being worked out. Watch for emails and the event on Facebook but just note the date change now.

Three: The summer competition entry portal is now open. It’s found from the competitions page on the site or at https://comps.sabrew.com/ – you need to log in etc…

Drop off is at the February meeting unless you organise something with us before with an email.

Maybe you’re back to work, maybe you’re still on holidays, either way, you deserve a beer. Our regular monthly meeting (third Wednesday of the month) is this Wednesday at the Wheaty and we’ll be in the front bar. We don’t have anything planned except a catch-up beer (hopefully the Gladfiled Malt/Wheaty collaboration Enzed Red is still on tap for you to try) but The Wheatsheaf is hosting Ben, founder and brewer at Bridge Road Brewers at Beechworth, Vic. Their beers will be on tap and he’ll be open to having a chat about anything brewing — from straight-laced ales to funk and sours. It’s a good opportunity to get some tips from one of Australia’s best brewers. If he’s like all the other brewers and maltsters we’ve met recently, once he gets talking, he won’t stop. (Wheaty event on FB for more)

We’ll meet from 7pm. There will be a food truck as usual and it’s going to be hot, hot, hot.

For those who wanted to get to Little Bang Brewing Co., we’ll most likely meet there in February for our summer competition judging when things have quietened down a bit for those guys after their new opening and we’ll be able to get a bigger bang at Little Bang.

Events — at time of writing there are one or two tickets left for the Southern Vales brewery bus tour in the shop. You need to log-in to buy as it’s members only. February 2, $30. Be quick. Event details.

2019 and beyond — Thank you to everyone who filled out the questionnaire recently. We got a lot of valuable feedback and ideas from it. We also got the green light that the club and committee are going alright and giving members value for money and enjoyment.

The committee is meeting next week and if you have any ideas for events, meetings, project or just things you can offer, please drop us an email or even better, come along to the meeting. We welcome members to join us and get more involved. You might just want to help generally run things or run something specific (like a barrel project … hint hint).

We do need help running our competitions. If you want to get involved with that in some way please let us know or talk to Gary. You could help manage bottle drop-offs, stewarding or just buying the water crackers and sharpening the pencils. Every pair of hands helps make light work. There’s lots to do and won’t take a lot of your time. Email info@sabrew.com

Happy New Year. The committee hopes you brewed a fine beer for the season. There’s not a lot to say at this time except welcome to our new members who joined over Christmas from gifts from their family or friends or new year’s resolutions to brew better beer.

The only news we have is, tickets for the McLaren Vale bus tour will go on sale Tuesday, Jan 2 from 8pm, from the SABC website shop at

The date is FEBRUARY 2. Tickets are $30. There are 21 seats available and are for members only – one per purchase and due to demand, you cannot buy for non-members.

*Please note, you will need to log in with the same you use to buy or renew SABC membership to see the item to buy.

The tour takes in some of McLaren Vales newest breweries and tap rooms, as well as an old favourite. Matt from My VIP driver will be driving us to:
Goodieson Brewery – meet head brewer Jeff
Shifty Lizard Brewing Co – meet head brewer Lee
Forktree Brewing – meet head brewer Ben. Lunch in the restaurant.
Swell -TBC

Pickup/dropoff point will be the Wheaty:
Depart: 9:45
Return: 17:45

If you live down south and would like to be picked up on the way, please contact us. We’ll look at adding a southern pickup point depending on numbers.

Please note that these venues have been booked based on our numbers. If you plan on driving yourself you may not be able to join our group for tastings/tours due to capacity limits.

[artwork by Samantha Wallwalk]Another year is done and dusted and again it’s time for our final meeting of the year. As is tradition, it’s a casual catch-up at The Wheaty on Wednesday from 7 pm. The club will put on pizzas from 7.30. We’ve also got an InkBird digital temperature controller up for raffle thanks to InkBird Australia. If you think you’re not the winning kind, you can buy one from their eBay shop and use SABC for a discount.

Like last year, we’re also doing a secret Santa beer gift. Please bring a bottle to drop and wrap it so no one can see what it is. Ideally, we’d like it to be your homebrew but if you’re stuck, please bring a bottle of something commercial you’ve enjoyed this year.

It’s been another big year for the club; our membership has grown and we’ve got great members making a fantastic contribution to the club and community. We did really well in competitions like SABSOSA where John Van der Zalm won best beer and Kieren best brewer and nationally at AABC where Greg and Kieren both won joint runner-up. The club hosted another excellent BeerBQ in May and members who brewed at Left Barrel Brewing in October got a lot out of the experience and some free beer! Our tour of West End was also an eye-opener as was Sweet Amber and Little Burra at the other end of the scale. Finally, our monthly meetings have been really well attended with over 35 regularly attending to hear about faults, yeast, malt and from guests like Stephen Nelsen from TAFE Regency Park a highlight for many.

If you can’t be with us on Wednesday, on behalf of the committee, have a happy, fun, relaxing and safe Christmas and New Year.

Give the gift of a club membership for Xmas (even if it’s to yourself)

South Australian Brewing Club memberships are a great Christmas gift idea. You can buy online, and even grab a gift card as a gift for someone else.

If your membership has lapsed or you’re looking for a gift for a friend, memberships are for 12 months and include some great extras, such as monthly meetings with technical topics and beer tastings, access to member-only bulk-buys, bottle swaps and collaborative brewing events and free catered social events – jam packed full of excellent extras for less than the price of a slab of crafty beers.

Crashing towards the end of the year, we hope your Christmas beers are in the keg or fermentors for the holidays. This newsletter only has celebration content too.

December meeting, Christmas drinks

We made the decision to cancel the end of year event at Flinders Tavern and make our regular meeting on December 19 a casual catchup but still stacked with some cool raffle prizes (and InkBird temp controller). We’ll also order in some pizzas. Also as we did last year, we are doing another secret Santa bottle swap. Everyone brings a bottle in a brown paper bag and leaves with another. While we expect it would be homebrew, if you’re stuck you can buy something commercial so everyone gets something. Stick your name on the bottle so the recipient knows whose it was. We’ll be there from 7 pm as usual and probably roll on until closing.

Club casual meetup: Wildflower sours masterclass Topher Boehm

We are jumping onto this Wheaty event this Wednesday, December 6 as a social gathering. Join SABC members for a sour beer masterclass at the Wheaty with Wildflower head brewer Topher Boehm. Topher recently presented at the Australian National Homebrew Conference and we can assure you he is a wealth of knowledge in sour brewing and blending. If you missed the conference, this was one of the standout presentations and you’re getting an opportunity to experience it on home soil.

As a bonus, The Wheaty is offering a free Fancy of choice to current SABC financial members who attend the tasting. You need to indicate in this event that you are ‘going’ so we can generate a list on our group Facebook event. If you’re not on Facebook, email us. Currently, there are 14 members going.

This is a Wheaty seated event like Good Beer Wheaty so bookings ($20+bf ) are essential through OZTIX here. Find out heaps more on their website.

Final reminder: Please take five to fill out our member survey. We’ll close it on Wednesday night. It’s mostly tick-a-box style responses with a few places to write a broader answer. It’s also anonymous. Click here to start the survey

Summer competition

The categories for our summer competition, judged at our February meeting, are:

Saison BJCP 25b: A great style for summer competition brewing because it ferments we’ll in warmer temperatures, so those who do not have temp control can experiment with the yeast.

Milk Stout: Based on 16a sweet stout. Emphasis is on a milky creamy mouthfeel with lactose the main source of the sweetness.

Milkshake stout will also be allowed. They should be higher in mouthfeel. Roastiness and hoppyness should be increased to balance the extra mouthfeel and sweetness. Any additions like chocolate strawberries vanilla etc should be noted in the entry.

NEIPA: From a stylistic standpoint, NEIPA is itself a bit of a conundrum. Opaque, cloudy and occasionally turbid in appearance. NEIPA is most often characterised by restrained bitterness, intense aromatics and “juicy” hop character.

Our monthly club meeting week has come around again. This Wednesday 21, 7pm we’re back at The Wheaty with special guest Gabi Michael, brewer and owner of NZ’s craft malters Gladfield Malt. She’ll be taking questions on how to get the best out of your malts and in particular Gladfield malts.

We recommend you grab their smartphone app that converts well-known malt names by other maltsers to their product and adjusts the amount required. It also converts full recipes including mash temperatures. Take a look and prepare your questions on how to brew your favourite styles with Gladfield. Also joining Gabi will be Jade from Wheaty Brewing Corps in taking your questions. She’s used Gladfield extensively in her beers and will give us her experienced view.

We’ll also be tasting a few of the beers brewed at Left Barrel six or so weeks ago.

All welcome, including non-members who want to come and check us out. Drop us a line to let us know you are interested in coming.

Christmas

Our Christmas event is on Saturday, December 8 at the Flinders Tavern from 1pm – 5pm. Members are free and guests are welcome to join us. Even though you’re a member, please grab a ticket here so we can generate a list of everyone attending and work out catering. You need to use your member log-in to find the free ticket in the shop. You can also buy one for a friend for $25.

Christmas event tickets now open

Our Christmas event is on Saturday, December 8 at the Flinders Tavern from 1pm – 5pm. Members are free and guests are welcome to join us. The ticket for non-members is $25 which gets them a Burger Theory meal (inc. pint) and homebrew tastings.

Even though you’re a member, please grab a ticket hereso we can generate a list of everyone attending and work out catering. You can buy one for a friend

We want to hear from you.

The committee takes a lot of time and consideration to plan the events and direction of the club. We want to know from you how you want us to give you the most value from being a member and what you want from the club — from the simple to big events. Please take five minutes to fill out this survey. It’s mostly tick-a-box style responses with a few places to write a broader answer. It’s also anonymous. The survey is now closed.

More on Christmas.. This years summer event will be held at the Flinders Tavern by Burger Theory at Flinders University. Saturday, December 8 at the Flinders Tavern from 1pm – 5pm.. Burger Theory is proudly South Australian small business and showcases a range of local and interstate craft beers in the tav including Big Shed, Mismatch, Hawkers and Green Beacon. As always the event is free for members and non-members can purchase a ticket. Snacks, a burger meal and pint will be provided.

Members raffle
We have a couple of prizes up for grabs for members only, you just need to be in attendance to go in the draw

Kegging and pressure filling demo
Thinking about moving away from the cleaning all those bottles and getting into kegging? We’re going to provide a kegging 101 demo and will show you how to:
-connect a basic keg & co2 setup
-transfer beer from keg to keg under pressure
-fill PET bottles from keg under pressure
A limited number of PET bottles will be filled with beer from the Left Barrel brew day and available for takeaway!

As is the tradition we’ll be announcing club brewer of the year and awarding the coveted trophy. There will be a couple of brew samples available from the Left Barrel brew day. The cricket will be on the TV, and the sun shining on the balcony.

Directions
Head to the main University entrance on Registry road. Enter the Student Hub and head upstairs.
Transport
Car
– car park 6 off Registry road. Free parking on weekends.
Uber
– enter ‘Registry road, Bedford Park’ as the destination for best results.
Bus
– catch the G10 direct from the CBD to the Flinders University interchange
– catch a bus to the Flinders Medical Centre interchange and walk 10 mins or catch another bus
Ride
A bike path follows the Sturt river from Anzac Highway to Maccas on South Road – then take the backstreets.

Congratulations to all our members who placed at the Australian National Homebrew Championships judged late last week in parallel with the Australian National Homebrew Conference.

Overall SA placed third in the state rankings with 11 winning beers (not all SABC members) — which is an excellent result showing we punch well above our weight compared to the numbers from the bigger states (that have more than one club).

SABC members Greg Weider (three silver) and Kieren Vercoe (two gold, seven places) were both placed second as best brewer but it was Greg who took it out on a countback. The full results are here.

With those wins, SABC won joint best Club at ANHC Clubnight with our ‘snake oil salesmen’ themed bar. Gary’s Saison won third place in the Hopco Southern Cross hop challenge. The prize was a piece of shiny SS Brewtech that we’re going to work out how the club members can use it.

Overall the National champs and ANHC conference was a huge success for us. A big thank you to everyone who won a place, attended the conference and dressed up or brewed for Club Night but especially Gary Waters and his wife Lee who not only dreamt up our theme, they also sourced the props (thanks Pirate), helped all of us find our costumes (thanks Priddo) but also brewed two excellent beers, drove our kegs and props over with Kieren. It all came together so well and topped off by Sam’s great labels.

Finally, to acknowledge that Mike Leupold awarded John Preston Award for his running SABSOSA over the last 20+ years. This is a prize awarded at the Australian National Homebrewing Conference recognising his outstanding contribution to Australian home brewing. Mike was in Melbourne to accept his award even though he didn’t know he was getting it. Congratulations!

As the warm weather arrives it’s time to start thinking about summer smashable beers to brew and what could be better than a simple well-made pilsner? This Wednesday we’re meeting at the German Club for what is probably the final time before the building goes under the auctioneer’s hammer. We’ll meet from 7pm. The kitchen is open and if want to eat, it’s advisable to get there early

The theme in part will be German beers — last year Gary presented a history of altbier, this year it will be lager. We’ll have lots of tastings too — a couple of German beers but we’re also welcoming anyone who wants to share any beers they’ve made with the Vic Secret hops many members got as a gift baggie. If you’ve got a beer to share, let us know ASAP by email.

Bottle swaps. If you just want to bring a just a single bottle or two to swap and taste later, that’s fine too. We’re trying to encourage more one to one random bottle swapping at meetings. Bring it in, label what it is, who you are and a contact if you like — even get fancy and link to the recipe online — and drop it on the beer bingo bench. If you bring a beer, you leave with a beer. Simple. Feedback to the brewer is encouraged.

The committee is also planning the next six months soon. If you have a meeting idea, want to present a talk or an experiment, let us know by email. All ideas welcome.

Events

Last Saturday a group of members had a brew day at Left Barrel Brewing at Balhannah while the rest of us stood around the bar watching and enjoying the beers. By all accounts it was fun and a bit of a learning experience and they’re all looking forward to tasting their beers that are now fermenting separately with brewer’s choice of yeast and dry hops. The results will be presented at the December Xmas drinks meeting. Thank you to everyone who signed-on. We’ll do it again next year.

While on Christmas, our club end of year event will be on Saturday, December 8 at the Flinders Uni Tavern. Put the date in your diaries now. As always, it’s free for members and that includes a meal by Burger Theory and some homebrew tastings. The bar is open with a wide range of ‘crafties’ on tap too. Guests welcome – non-members ticket price TBC.

We’re also announcing a breweries tour by bus in February at Wednesday’s meeting too.

Free beer. The Wheaty is presentingBridge Road Brewers – Mayday Masterclasswith Bridge Road founder Ben Krauss this Thursday, October 18. Jade has offered a free pint to SABC members who want to go. You need to get your name to us by email by 5 pm Tuesday to get on the list.

Membership

Phew! thinking about what’s been happening and putting a value on it — brew day wort, hops, free pints, Xmas party meal as well as raffles and meetings — it adds up to more than the cost of membership. That’s pretty good. If you’ve got a friend who’s interested in joining, or you’re reading this and have a membership that has lapsed, now’s a great time to join SABC.

Just a quick reminder email this week that the regular club meeting is on Wednesday at the Wheaty. As the newsletter post said last week, we’ll be having a casual Q&A chat and hear tips and tricks from winning brewers, judge’s advice and comp organisers on what makes a great entry, how to improve your own beer by taking on the feedback from the judge’s scoresheets.

We’ll have some member’s beers to taste and have an opportunity to apply BJCP judging to them. Even if you’re not competition driven, it’s still about making the beer you brew even better.

If you have a beer you want to share at the meeting, or you’ve made something with the Vic Secret hops, drop us a note on Facebook or email us.

There will be a food truck serving as well.

Also, get thinking of what we can brew for ANHC Club challenge with 1kg of Southern Cross (NZ) hops (there’s already been some discussion in the FB group.)

And if you’re interested in taking part in the brew day at Left Barrel, it’s on Saturday, Oct 13. It’s free and you’ll get to brew with Brad Bown and take away 20L of wort. You’ll need to clear your diary and be ready to sign up on Wednesday because spaces are limited. See more about it HERE. If you can’t make the meeting, let us know now if you’re super keen.